Tragedy Echoes In Business World

September 13, 2001|By Antonio Fins and Doreen Hemlock Business Writers and Business Writers Joan Fleischer Tamen, Barbara Powell and Jenni Bergal contributed to this report.

South Florida opened for business Wednesday on what was anything but a normal workday.

U.S. airports remained closed, as did the nation's financial markets. But banks, malls, restaurants, seaports and other businesses tried to restore a semblance of normalcy, shattered by Tuesday's terrorist attacks.

The shock waves hit South Florida's business community especially hard because of close links with New York's financial district.

The mood was somber at the Miami offices of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., as workers pondered the fate of 3,500 colleagues who worked on 50 floors in one of the collapsed World Trade Center towers. The company offered counseling to employees and set up an information hotline, which noted late afternoon that the "vast majority" in New York were safe.

Staff at Fiduciary Trust International in Miami also sought news on 650 of their colleagues who worked in the decimated towers, as did employees at the World Trade Center-Fort Lauderdale, an affiliate of the association whose headquarters gave its name to the New York City landmark.

"I'm afraid there's not much anyone knows about specific loss of life there," said Carole Patella, executive vice president of the World Trade Center-Fort Lauderdale.

Like many others, Patella's professional concerns dovetailed with family links, too. Her 35-year-old son and his wife work across the street from the World Trade Center. It wasn't until 3 a.m. Wednesday that the couple called Florida.

"They saw and heard people fall and scream. They were walking through body parts to get out of there," Patella said. "They will never be the same again, ever."

South Florida economist Antonio Villamil said he was supposed to be at the World Trade Center complex this week for a meeting of the National Association of Business Economists, but his colleague, Bob Cruz, attended instead. Cruz and his wife were evacuated from the Marriott Hotel on the lower floors of the complex and are safe in New York.

"Bob told me the place rumbled and shook like an earthquake. He lost everything in the hotel room," said Villamil, who heads the Washington Economics Group in Coral Gables. "But at least he's accounted for. Other business economists aren't."

Employees at PriceWaterhouseCoopers got word Wednesday that five of the consulting company's employees had been aboard one of the hijacked jets. Scott Berman, who heads the firm's hospitality group in Miami, did not know those colleagues personally, but was shaken.

"It hits you. It's part of the family," said Berman.

Throughout South Florida, managers took steps to help employees cope with the tragedy. American Express had counselors on-hand at their operations center in Plantation. BankUnited donated $10,000 to kick off a fund-raising drive for victims of the attacks.

"People here really, really want to help. Be it a blood drive, raising funds. The company can spearhead the effort" and thereby help boost morale, said psychologist David Blank, vice president of Right Management Consultants in Fort Lauderdale.

The attacks led to increased security at ports and other operations.

Port Everglades, which shut down Tuesday after the attacks, reopened Wednesday at noon with heightened controls. Fences around oil storage units -- usually open all day to allow truck traffic -- were locked and opened only as needed, officials said.

The Broward port had allowed some limited activities late Tuesday, including arrival of a petroleum tanker at about 5 p.m. The only cancellation was a SeaEscape evening cruise.

Calls poured in for extra help at companies that offer security services.

Wackenhut Corp. of Palm Beach Gardens, which provides guards and other services, said it was contacted by federal agencies and utility companies it serves.

"We do a lot of work at government buildings and Department of Energy nuclear production sites," said Wackenhut spokesman Patrick Cannan. "They have moved to a higher degree of security."

Managers also focused more on workplace emergency plans. "In South Florida, we often think in terms of hurricanes," said Patricia Thorp, president of Miami public relations firm Thorp & Co. "But Tuesday's events show us that crises come in many shapes and forms."

Sterling Financial in Boca Raton wondered how long it will take to resume trading bonds. The company's $35 billion bond-trading business largely depended on a Wall Street electronic system called TradeWeb that was housed at the collapsed World Trade Center.

"TradeWeb allowed a small firm like ours to compete with the largest firms," said Sterling chief executive officer Charles Garcia. "But TradeWeb got wiped out."